A short time after arriving in Jerusalem for a late-night meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke slowly and deliberately in outlining the purpose of her trip.

"The goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike," Clinton said about ending the violence in Gaza.

You could almost see Clinton underlining the word "durable." Standing beside her, Netanyahu had a similar emphasis, speaking of the desire for a "long-term solution to this problem."

Too many cease-fires in the region have been shattered and long-time experts on the Middle East cautioned that guns that fall silent often don't stay silent for long.
"I think the most likely scenario is that there is a cease-fire, hopefully brokered by the United States and Egypt, and we all go back to exactly where we were before. In a couple of years we start this process all over again," Middle East analyst Reza Aslan told CNN.

Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, cited Israel's ground incursion in 2008 and 2009 which yielded three years of relative quiet.

"It's hard to imagine, unless certain incentives were added to the package, that you could get another outcome that would last that long," he said.

Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev doesn't want history to repeat itself.

"We don't need a quick fix just to have everything explode in our face next week or next month," he said. "When we come out of this crisis, we want to be in a situation where we have a sustained period of peace and quiet. The civilians on both sides of the frontier deserve that," Regev told Wolf Blitzer in an interview on CNN's "Situation Room."

A spokesman for Hamas told Blitzer that Hamas believes past cease-fire agreements with Israel have been violated by the Israeli side. A truce could be agreed to by Hamas if the security of the Palestinian population is explicitly part of any deal.

"The security is supposed to also be for the Palestinians," Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesman based in Beirut said in a telephone interview. "What we are working on now is to have a complete deal which can secure the situation also for the Palestinians. This is our responsibility. If that was guaranteed, I think, I believe, also that Hamas will implement this kind of truce, and we will fulfill our commitments according to that."

Israel said it was holding off on a ground offensive into Gaza to give diplomatic efforts time. Gaza is run by Hamas, which the United States and numerous other countries consider a terrorist organization.

On Tuesday, an onslaught of rockets fired into Israel was met by Israeli strikes on Gaza sites. The Gaza Ministry of Health said 137 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,100 injured so far in a week of violence. According to Israel's Soroka Hospital, five people have been killed in Israel and more than 70 have been injured.

Robin Wright, joint fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and Woodrow Wilson Center, who has covered every war in the Middle East since 1973, told CNN that "no cease fire endures in the Middle East without something tangible happening diplomatically."

"The problem," Wright said, "always is there is just another round, it lasts only so long."

Wright said Clinton's challenge will be not just to encourage both sides to sustain a cease fire, but to "create the incentive to ensure that they will abide by it – and that means tackling the tough issues."

Wright envisions a three-step process: a ceasefire; a solution for issues that immediately impact Gaza like the Israeli blockade; and then the big issues, like Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

But the split between the radical Hamas leadership and the more moderate leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, makes that much more difficult, experts said.

"At a certain point Israel is going to have to recognize that Hamas, whether it likes it or not, is the actual government in Gaza, and it's going to have to figure out a long-term solution to maintaining a viable ceasefire and that might include easing the blockade against Gaza," Reza Aslan said.

"There are no longer two players in the peace process," said Wright. "There are three: The Israelis, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza."

"Until ten days ago Mahmoud Abbas appeared to have the initiative," she said.

Now, Hamas looks like it has the lead and, she added, "You can't marginalize Hamas anymore."

Palestinian internal divisions, however, are making what Clinton calls a "durable outcome" unlikely – at least for now.

"Can the Palestinians unite in order to be able to get to Phase Three?" asked Wright. "They haven't been able to do it so far."

soundoff(392 Responses)

Hamas is the disease in the Palestine – Israel conflict, just like the Hezbollah in the Lebanon – Israel conflict. And this 2 group have something in common, to see Israel to be wipe out...so how can you make peace with the devil? a devil will always be a devil. Divine intervention will always protect the people of the Book, and it was proven by the Book that says "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you"...History can prove that and God will never break His Promise.

DO NOT FORGET POLITICS IS A TOUGH BUISNESS TO BE IN MOST END UP LOSING EVERYTHING GAINING NOTHING BEING IMPRISIONED WATCHING THEIR PEOPLE GET HANDLED WITH THE SAME REGARDS INCLUDING DEATH AND IF YOUR SUCCESFUL YOU STILL WATCH THOSE YOU ARE TRYING TO PROTECT GET SCEEWERED EVEN AFTER YOU SAY THE RIGHT & OR WRONG THING

LOOK AT IT THIS WAY ONLY THE SMART JEWS (EINSTIENS) BAILED OUT ON THEIR LESSER RELITIVES BEFORE HITLER GOT TO THEM BUT IF EVERY THERE IS ANOTHER HITLER HE WILL NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE OF LETTING THE SMART JEWS GO SO THE JEWS ISOLATE THEMSELVES IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE INBREADING THOUGHTS AND SOCIAL ENDOCRINATIONS ALL UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF MASS WEALTH AMONG A HANDFULL OF INDIVIDUALS A SUPERRIOR GAME PLAN

THE JEWS (A TRIBE) HAD A INVADING PAGEN GENERAL (ROMAN) HANG A PEACEFUL POLITICAL ORGANIZER (JESUS) BECAUSE HE WAS AGAINST JEWS COLLECTING MONEY FROM CITIZENS TO GO INTO THE JEWS TEMPLE AND CALLING IT RELIGION

What exactly do you know about the Jewish religion? I myself was not brought up as a Jew. Could you shed some light on that for me please? You said earlier that you were brought up to see arabs as worse than dogs? That Christians were stupid and Jews were superior? How can that be?

Jews cannot absolve themselves of the crime. That is the curse and that is why the Jews are the cursed people.

November 21, 2012 at 9:31 pm |

Skorpio

A MASSIVE CONVERSION OF MUSLIMS TO CHRISTIANITY is the answer to world peace. I am quite sure that if Palestinians were Christians NO Islamic ruler, nation or extremist would pay attention to them nor give them any kind of support or resources.

It is due to people like you that there is so much turmoil in the world. You encourage intolerance and hate. You feel happy when people die. You are as bad as the person who fires the bullet. You are a murder and killer. You have a place secure in hell.

I've read quite a few things related to this conflict on several news sites, both in and out of the US. The one message I keep seeing is a portrayal of an Israel that acts with impunity and basically thumbs its nose at and has outright attacked the UN with no consequences. I'm in no way taking sides here or defending anyone, but it really seems that Israel is the aggressor and the opressor here.

Israeli soldiers using 2 PALESTINIAN children as human shields. They do whatever they want whenever they want
and they will always get away with it. So the chump that made the comment about "well they voted for hamas so they
get what they deserve" is a fool and should not open his mouth with such rubbish. Since 1947 when the UN stole the Palestinian land to make way for the Israeli state the Palestinian people have been treated like DIRT. In the years since, the Israelis have taken more and more land pushing them back with weapons – of course the Palestinians are going to fight – who wouldn't? Perhaps the couch potato who made the hamas comment earlier and who knows nothing about the world. People like you need to stick to your ben and jerry's ice cream – your comments are asinine.

The Palestinians have been mistreated for years and the world has just let it happen. It is disgusting and it is wrong.

Both sides are in the wrong,and until people wake up and see this there will never be peace. So go ahead and leave your little anti Israeli or anti Palestinian comments,just know that every time you point your finger you got three pointing back.

Kepaze....there is no occupation. Pull your head out of the sand, and stop listening to your crazy jihadi imams and clerics!!!! Israel left Gaza completely in 2005 (i.e NO OCCUPATION), and yet the barbaric arabs and their supporters still blame all the issues on Occupation!! Occupation, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid are the policies of Arabs and Palestinians, not Israelis!!! Is there one single Jew in the Palestinian territories? Because there are plenty of arabs living in Israel, enjoying a far better life than in ANY other Arab country. Stop supporting Al Qaeda and Hamas, lunatic!

What needs to be done is the UN take control of the under populated Sinai, build a DMZ between it and Israel, build an infastructure to turn the Sinai into a garden spot, and move the so-called "palestinians" from the West Bank, East Jeruselem and Gaza there. Israel takes over the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jeruselem. Those are the borders of Israel, and the Palestinian state is the new state of Palestine in the Sinai. UN can also assure the new state of its safety by supplying UN forces to the the new states military and police force.

Thats go to be a better solution than what they live in now, and they would have far better access to ports and trade in Sinai than they do in Gaza

Israel is a menace too all people in the middle east. The want what isn't theirs and continue to steal Palestinian land in the Gaza and East Jerusalem. They do this by building settlements on land that they steal.

Southernquilts, you talk a lot about the Palestinians. Lets talk facts: THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A CIVILIZATION OR NATION REFERRED TO AS “PALESTINE!. Over 3,250 years, various Peoples, Religions and Empires marched through Jerusalem, Israel’s ancient capital established by King David. The region was successively ruled by the Hebrews (Jews), Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Maccabeans, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Egyptians, the Crusaders, Mamelukes, the Turks (who indifferently governed the backward neglected territory from the 16th Century until the British drove them out during World War I) and then once again by the Jews in 1948. None bothered, nor were they in the least bit inclined, to build a Nation of their own…EXCEPT the Jews!. Oh, and the Hamas is firing om civilians for 12 years. Even when Israel left Gaza. Look it up. But you wont. You are blind with hate to a nation you have never even seen! come to Israel, see for yourself how the Arabs live there. See for YOURSELF.

November 21, 2012 at 6:34 pm |

TMOX1130

If the palestinian people wanted a 2 state solution, or peace, they wouldn't have voted in terrorists to lead their country. If they wanted the world to take them seriously, they wouldn't have voted in terrorists.
If they wanted to have dialogue with their neighbours, lift the embargo, enjoy some form of economic success, they wouldn't have voted in terrorists. So the average palestinian Joe cannot claim that this situation is beyond their control. It is their fault but, it can be fixed. When is the next election??
I say, in the short term at least in order to have peace the quickest,easiest, most compassionate solution is to have all the Hamas members and leaders to get into their car, drive slowly in a convoy to the soccer stadium,park all the cars in a big circle and stand in the middle, and wait.
Peace would soon follow.

Hamas where to only ones to build schools,hospitals,infrastructure. Thats why they where voted in. Killing civilians is always wrong,but I would say Israel is just as guilty of that if not way more. The Palestinians have to deal with the Israelis and they've killed way more and commeted war crimes. The right wing Israelis don't want peace cuz if there's peace they will never be able to take that land that they think god left to them. Hamas dosnt want peace cuz they know they'll lose there power. I hope people see where extreme conservative governments take them. And that's true for both sides.

If Israel wanted peace they would stop the illegal settlements,the blockade and the targeted assassinations(wich started this mess). It's your one sided BS that's way off base.

November 21, 2012 at 2:20 pm |

John in NY

So you claim that Israel started "this mess" by attacking the military head of the terrorist group which has launched hundred of rockets and missles into Israel in the months before the attack? Seriously?

November 21, 2012 at 4:37 pm |

Freedom Fascist

That's funny the whole bit about electing terrorists. How about our government? Take a wild guess: whose got more blood of innocent people on their hands...Barrack Obama or Hamas? (And if you answer Hamas, you are an idiot!) Wish my fellow countrymen would stop being idiots, look at the numbers and statistics people, stop believing we are right and they are wrong – it brings about nationalism which brings about war. God – pro-israel, pro-arab, – pro-american – PRO WAR. PERIOD. GET OVER YOURSELF – YOU ARE A TERRORIST!

Good one. There is no end game. They will keep doing this long after we are all dead and buried. I guess it gives us something to talk about, but I am bored with this conversation. It's the same thing over and over and over and over and over... Well you get the picture. Am I supposed to feel sorry for them over and over and over and over again. They keep doing it to themselves. Nobody really wants peace, they just want the other side to suffer as much as possible.

It's not kill all of anyone. It's Hamas stopping all attacks on israelis and recognising Israel's right to exist. And Israel stopping the blockade,the construction of illegal settlements,the targeted assassinations and grant the Palestinians there state hood. End of story.

2,000 years of hatred, mistrust and mutual killing has ensured they will never Come to their Senses. Only tolerance, acceptance of differences and a Live-And-Let-Live policy will let both sides attempt peace. But that is a pipe dream.

You who side with the Palestinians (which has NEVER been a state, EVER) and support killing, jihad, using children as bombers, hijacking, carbombs, destruction of any temple that isn't Islamic, public and taped beheadings, dragging bodies through the streets, over a pro-Western Democracy, attacked since the day it was created, over and over again, are vile. And FYI, the Israelites were in that region for more than 1000 years before Islam rolled in from Arabia around 640ad. Muslim shrines were built atop Jewish ones. It's ALL based on religion, bottom line. Which is the number 1 cause of human death and suffering to begin with. But to side with the barbaric animals over a legitimate Country defending it self, as it has been for 60 odd years is just pure PC BS at work.

November 21, 2012 at 11:46 am |

Jim

Until the "peace loving Islamists" rise up and stop their brethren from lobbing rockets across the border, blowing up buses, and encouraging their less intelligent offspring to carry bombs on their bodies, there will be no peace. The alternatives, not discussed, are kicking all the Gaza residents out or eradicating them all. The first only moves the rockets a few miles into Egyptian territory, but the second ensures no more rockets. Not very PC, but very effective.

Hamas is a mirror image of Israel where the struggle is based on religious preferences with Biblical or Koranic views.

The larger problem is not a religious one but a demographic one.

Israel is veiwed by Arabs as the remnant of the recent past colonial history of Europeans. It is considered the last colonial outpost left in the Arab world, with 5-million, largely European settlers, imposing themselves upon 500-million locals who did not welcome or allow them in.

The "Arab World" needs to return to "Arabia" and leave the rest of the World alone. Arabic Islam is attempting to "colonize" the planet, through intimidation and murder and Sharia Law, as they have demonstrated over and over again. Their biggest benefactor? Political Correctness. THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE.

Hamas has no chance of destroying Israel and will keep up this behavior until Israel puts and end to this problem. The only solution that will hold is the destruction of Hamas and the occupation of Gaza. Israel should move in, move the palestinians to the west bank and take over the Gaza Strip. Contrary to what some others are saying about Israel being outnumbered by 500:1, it won't make a difference if Israel is attacked. The only solution is peace, real and permanent with Israel or death. The Islamic world has to choose.

They are just mad because they are not the ones who get to blow themselves up, when they would like to be the ones to do it themselves. In their eyes, whats the point of traning for so many years to become a suicide bomber and martyr when they do not get to fulfil the mission. Thats the only reason these pigs are upset. I say Israel stuffs them with pig feces, and nukes them all.

Israel has demographic problem that is unsurmountable. 5-million Erupean Settlers are surrounded by 500-miliion hostile locals (Arabs). That is a disadvantage of 100-to 1. It is unsustainable in the log run. Military superirioirty can only buy you temporary hold. Eventually, the tallest walls and the deepest trenches are overrun by the majority.

Most of the leaders in Israel, the US and the entire Arab world are aware of this. We are just avoiding the inevitble with money guns and bloodhed.

First remove "the dome of the rock" mosque, Rebuild the Jewish temple,for it has been jewish land for over 3,000 years.One must realize the jews where once occupied by the Roman's for hundreds of years,helped kill Christ, destroyed their temples. The Jews also exspelled the brittish in 1948, which would now be known as terrorist actions.They will never leave or give up! Palastinians should strike a deal or parrish.

How do you expect 5-million European settlers to vanquish 500-million Arabs? If they could they would have done it. Sitting on a tiimy perch, haging to a sliver of land, surrounded by hostile locals, hodling them off with superior weapons is a temporary solution. Calling for nuking of one people or anohter is a juvenile wishful thinking. Eventually, the European Settlers cannot hold off a growing po;ulation of Arabs both inside and outside of Israel.

Any person looking at the problem objectively will tell you that Israel is at a prepetual and long term disadvantage.

November 21, 2012 at 11:20 am |

USAtheist

...and who did the Arabs displace when they rolled in out of Arabia? Remember, The Arabs had no state until the "Europeans" help create Arabia and all was fine, but when the Europeans did the same for Jews, the Arabs were going to have no part of it. Compare the landmass of Arabia to Israel.

The FINAL SOLUTION for HAMAS is the Extermination of Every Jew on the PLANET so How Can Israel Reach an Agreement with them? The Only Way Out that I See is an Agreement with Israel for EGYPT to station Permanent Peace-keepers in Gaza who would be RESPONSIBLE for Stopping Rockets from being fired into Israel and whose presence would make Israeli Air Strikes unlikely. The AID that the US is giving to Egypt would be contingent upon their Success.

Hamas is a mirror image of Israel where the struggle is based on religious preferences with Biblical or Koranic views.

The larger problem is not a religious one but a demographic one.

Israel is veiwed by Arabs as the remnant of the recent past colonial history of Europeans. It is considered the last colonial outpost left in the Arab world, with 5-million, largely European settlers, imposing themselves upon 500-million locals who did not welcome or allow them in.

The end game is obvious. Like South Africa, Israel and its 5-million European settlers cannot sustain themselves using the barrel of a gun pointed towards 500-million hostile Arabs on the other side. The numbers dont favor Isreal in the long run.So the violence will continue until Israelis, like the European Afrikaners finally realize that they klli their way out of this quagmire.

The only reason those stinking arab sand camels are so upset is because Israel are the ones who are blowing up (albeit not on purpose but as a consequence through war) their population – woman and children included. Their gripe is that Israel is doing the blowing up, when they wanted to be the ones to blow themselves up. What a waste of raising a child to learn how to be a suicide bomber, and then all of a sudden Israel beats him to it.

I say Israel nukes this entire animal pig S*$t population. They are no good. They have contributed nothing but violence to mankind and need to be nuked.

Right on Bubba. Just nuke everyone who fights for theri land and family. If it was that easy your primitive mind would have been called a genius by Neadnderthals. You have 500-million Aras, not just the people in Gaz that are against the aritifcial propping of a European selltr population. Until that settlers pull donw the barrciades and allow the locals to lvie among them, they will continue to face these challenges. Israel simply does not have a winning hand in the long run. Victory by guns is never premanent.

Listen up you raging pig of a jihadi extreemist – Israel has the ability to nuke your entire stinking arab race, but they are not going to use that power. That is what real power is – the ability to crush someone, but not doing it. The arabs are a disease, they always have been, and always will. They have contributed more violance to the world than any other race. The jews have not been responsible for any killing or violance (other than through the natural concequence of war). When a jew gets on a bus people dont fear for their lives. When an Arab gets on a bus, not only do people fear for their lives, but the smell of his stank stench is enough of a reason to run for the hills.

November 21, 2012 at 11:04 am |

Mark

ALEX FEST people like you are WORSE than a DISEASE. You are the most repulsive form of 'nothingness' a 'total waste of space' using up oxygen that you do not even deserve.

Tell you what – you stick to your 'ben and jerry's' ice cream, and your pilates, and your rubbish television and leave politics and current events to people WHO ACTUALLY KNOW SOMETHING about the world. Um.... It's CALLED A PASSPORT and with it you can ACTUALLY visit other countries outside of the US.

Your comments are ASININE!

November 21, 2012 at 3:10 pm |

longtimesailor

Or they could try bulldozing Gaza Strip into the sea and start over again....half the place is rubble by now anyway.

Very simple. If you think peace can break out you are a fool. Hamas is a terrorist group of thugs, You don't negotiate with thugs, CNN always takes the terrorist side of an argument. Makes you wonder who CNN is????

Let's buy Baja or some other place that they can thrive in safety and peace, their future is more important than the past. There will never be peace in the middle east. Who would want to live in the middle of all that ignorance and hate?

Beautifully stated Jeff.
I Nominate you for Secretary of State effective immediately!
We also don't want them over there in case we soon have to nuk the place due to intolerances of the people there.
Pride is worthless. Strategy is paramount. Israel would be stronger to get out of there, Loose one Battle, but Win the War!

Why is no one ever talking about a 3 state solution? How can you have a state/nation divided geographically by another state/nation? Gaza and the West Bank will NEVER be one nation, NEVER EVER! It is simply impossible, how could Israel allow that? Say your neighbor (who hates you and you hate) owned a parcel on either side of your property, and said I want to be able to cross your property without restraint, what would you say? Buzz off, right? Without an easement your neighbor is SOL. Same for Palestinians, they will never be able to cross Israel from Gaza to WB freely. Ergo, there cannot be one unified Palestinian state that includes both Gaza and WB, it just cannot happen. I just don't understand the 2 state solution model, anyone else?

Thats why its time to just have the one state model.
Israel will own the whole area and the Palestinians can move to Iran and Syria which have been their biggest supporters.
Thus ends the fighting between Israel and Palestine. FOREVER!

You make it sound so easy. If it isn't Israel, it would be somewhere else. If Israel had a space station on the moon, the muslims would claim they were there first...

November 21, 2012 at 10:09 am |

Steve

have all the people in Palestine and Israel move back to their ancestral home of 1850.

Then look at demographics .

November 21, 2012 at 10:20 am |

tbone

If there is no Palestine, there is no war.
Its time for Israel to bring decades of trying to get along with their neighbors to an end.
If Palestine cant get along, evict them all together.
Israels nation will just double in size.

Like i said before, you go and kick the bigger kid on the block in the shin enough, he will kick your butt, then Hamas wants to play the fact that civilians are getting killed. Keep shooting rockets,and israel will continue to pound you. if it just so happens that when the rockets stop, there is nobody left on that side, well you lose. Can Hamas win? not in reality, they are hoping that a country with more firepower will step in. (Iran, egypt, etc.)

The level of hypocrisy is astounding! Bashar Assad is ruthlessly killing his own people by the thousands while no one is lifting a finger to assist in the resolution of this conflict (only useless rhetoric). Israel, on the other hand, while I'm not attempting to justify any killing, is actually calling AND dropping flyers to warn people of an imminent attack, so as to save themselves!!! Any comparison?! Oh, let's not forgot our beloved Saddam Hussein, Allah rest his soul(in hell). He killed(massacred) THOUSANDS of his own people as well, albeit mostly Shiites and Kurds!

What would bring an end to the Gaza conflict would be by either a mutual agreement to sit down at the same table and discuss peace(not likely, considering all the hatred spewed all over the region), or complete annihilation of Hamas!

Any "players" taking over would never reach the clout that Hamas attained. They were organized and well supported financially by other regimes. These 'hot heads' would be no more than thugs, mere nuisances!

November 21, 2012 at 2:49 pm |

tbone

Its time for Israel to end this nonsense once and for all.
So many times Israel has turned the other cheek at the prodding of the USA, and the result is always more attacks on their citizens.
Its time for Israel to wipe the stain that is Palestine off the map and then live in peace without the constant attacks by Irans militant wing Hamas.
I truly hope Israel doesnt back down this time. Palestines destruction is the ONLY endgame that will bring them peace.
Palestine had its chance to live in peace

Who wants to live in an intermitent,which is gaza. Both side are actors one has more,TV outlets. In the end both side will answer,to grimm reaper the winner.The grimm reaper seem to have created this area and loves it.

Why can't there just be a simple ultimatum. "If you can't stop firing rockets at us, were going to conquer and relocate you to some far away country!" Wouldn't that be incentive enough? It seems pretty simplistic to me. And for all of the “its religions fault and believers are uneducated group”, you need to read your history about the founding fathers of today’s sciences. They were very devoted Christians even when threatened with persecution. They just simply believed differently than others.

"War is the continuation of politics by other . . . means." When politics develops to a certain stage beyond which it cannot proceed by the usual means, war breaks out to sweep the obstacles from the way.... When the obstacle is removed and our political aim attained the war will stop. Nevertheless, if the obstacle is not completely swept away, the war will have to continue until the aim is fully accomplished.... It can therefore be said that politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."
Mao Tse Tung -–But I can see Hamas saying this too.

"We have liberated Gaza, but have we recognized Israel? Have we given up our lands occupied in 1948? We demand the liberation of the West Bank, and the establishment of a state in the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital – but without recognizing [Israel]. This is the key – without recognizing the Israeli enemy on a single inch of land. ...
"Our plan for this stage is to liberate any inch of Palestinian land, and to establish a state on it. Our ultimate plan is [to have] Palestine in its entirety. I say this loud and clear so that nobody will accuse me of employing political tactics. We will not recognize the Israeli enemy. "
Hamas co-founder and acting Foreign Minister Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, on Future News TV, June 15, 2010, source: MEMRI

Article Twenty-Two of the Hamas Charter claims this about "zionists" : "They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution ... They were behind World War I ... They were behind World War II ... It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council."

Read the Charter – see for yourself that the armed conquest of Israel is the main reason that Hamas exists.

Eventaully, the European settlers in Israel will have to yield to the locals. The unrelenting pressure from 500-million Arabs not just the Palestinians. That means the State of Israel in its present form will be dissolved into more a state where the power is shared between the locals and the European settlers. Eventually, the Settlers will either be abosrbed into the local population like they did during the crusades or they will return to their ancesteral homelands of redcent past. Walls, motes, trenches and guns can only stave off for a few decades. It too 123-years for the Afrikaners to give up to South African majority. 62-years is not a very long time especially coming after WWll.

This is your new war, America, taxpayers funding free fuel and military arms to Israel at the tune of $18.5 million A DAY! Billions and billions spent over decades. Can you afford it, while your infrastructure is in shambles, people are still without homes or heat or food after Hurricane Sandy? The rest of the world laughs at how clueless and outdated the US is, while their wars rage on abroad! How convenient that US Israeli joint exercises happened in October and now that the election is over, World War III has started thanks to US meddling. Only way to get out of its death spiral of debt, is to start a way. This spells the end for the US Empire for sure.

WW3? Please enough with the stratospheric hyperbole and the surefire destruction of the USA.

Here are some uncomfortable facts for you:
1. The threat of a major regional war, at least a mini WW3 is real, and it it hopefully won't be nuclear but it is about nukes, and it involves Hamas's best friend and supplier of its' best rockets and it has nothing to do with the occupied territories and everything to do with the destruction of Israel. Yes, Iran.
2. I am sure that the other Iran proxy, Hezbollah, and Iran itself are both very unhappy to find out just how effective Iron Dome is and just how ineffective their missiles now are. Iran must be rethinking their entire nuclear ballistic missile program with the realization that they are going to need a lot more IRBMS if they expect to get past Israel's Arrow ABM system. Unfortunately for Iran, they will not be allowed to get enough nuclear warheads for those IRBMS before they are struck by either the US and/or Israel.
3. All that time, money, and effort which Hamas & Iran are putting into building weapons and buying weapons to strike Israel could instead be used to turn the occupied territories into a Paradise. But instead they are totally fixated on destroying Israel.

I will give you this much at least . A major regional war is coming involving Israel & the USA versus Iran, and that may spread into the Arabian Peninsula and beyond (especially the economic consequences of disrupted oil exports), and if it does then future historians may agree with you and call this the opening battle of WW3.

No, it is a FACT that the muslim religion wants to press that religion on everyone, the only reason they cant is because they do not have the strength to do it, AT THIS POINT. Other religions try to convert people, but they dont go around hacking peoples heads off of people that dont convert or comply with their rules. Dont know if i've ever heard of a religion that kills more of it's own people in the name of whoever.

Your lack of knowledge about Islam is obvious. Islam forbids forcing religion on any one . If you want to rant and rave about something you should at least make an effort to get some about the subject. It is very obvious that some of the people who are Muslims do not practice islam the way it should be. These so called Muslims should not be considered the representatives of this religion . If you look at history , Christians colonizedost of the world and forcibly converted the people subjucated by them to christanity. There empires folded but they left there legacies such as Kashmir and the mid east fir generations to tackle. Israel was created by the colonial powers because they felt guilty/ sorry for happened to Jews in the second WW. No consideration was given to the people already living in the area now called Israel. Israel is an impractical country to maintain ad evident by cyclical blood letting . How long will the world tolerate this situation ?

What Koran are YOU reading?
Obviously not the one the entire Middle East believes.

November 21, 2012 at 9:34 am |

don thomas

it seems you want to take us for idiots urrggh?
check sura 9:29-30 where it says slay the people of the book (jews and christians) and fight those who do not believe in allah.

November 21, 2012 at 9:47 am |

Pleasewakeup

"If you look at history"...is the common beginning of any reply from a muslim who can't find anything comparable to present-day Islam. Grasshopper, the date today is November the 21st in the year 2012. We're in the 21st Century! Hmmm...

Keep digging, as you'll never find anything close to what damage Islam has caused in our world today. Allah o Akbar!

November 21, 2012 at 9:49 am |

CasualUser

Complete mental fabrication without an iota of historical facts. Jews migrated on their own to Israeli because it was theeir historical land and according to zionism, they needed to go back at some point. The Hitler's progrom forced them to do it much earlier. Palestine was conquered by moslem arabs from euorpean empire who settled there after many but not all jews were dispersed to arab lands and europe. Jews have had established kingdoms with well known kings in that area as any archeological dig can confirm this fact. No archaelogical dig has ever found the existence of palestinian people who ursuped the land much later due to arab conquest in 1000+Ad. The land historical belongs to the jews and arab moslems needs to relocate back to Saudi Arabia or better Jordan where they make 60 percent of the population.

November 21, 2012 at 9:51 am |

Pthfndr

You seem to think that the "bad" muslims "good" musllims story is still going to work for you. If you cannot police your own religious nut cases, then you are eventually going to be met with the "Kill them all and let God sort them out" approach.

November 21, 2012 at 10:01 am |

Pleasewakeup

The bad muslim/good muslim idea brings up another point. If you're not part of the solution then you're part of the problem. What are the "good" muslims doing to diffuse all this harm done on the world by their brethren? Ziltch! Case closed!

November 21, 2012 at 10:08 am |

USAtheist

The WHY is there not MASSIVE outcries from the "majority" Muslims? Why are they silent? Because they "silently" support the extremest. The worlds largest religion, plagued with "extremism", and supposedly a small %, yet the "90+ %" remain 99% silent.

November 21, 2012 at 12:23 pm |

Canadian View

I say level the nation, and rid the World of every Hamas piece of trash on this planet from existence. All these animals do is fight with eachother. A good part of the middle East is always at war with their own people or their neighbours on a constant basis. Why does the rest of the World think that by send troops over to try to get create peace will work? It will not! These "people" do not want peace, they want continuous BS to go on, to flex their puny muscles and BS to Allah so they can feel powerful or something along those lines. The civilized parts of the World have had enough with this constant fighting.

End game? Take care of our own business for a while. I find it apalling that this is dominating the news when we have fiscal cliff in our immediate future. Yes, take care of our own business and then go back and try to establish a relationship with who ever wins. I consider myself a religious man and it has been my opinion that this pile of rocks has been cursed by God since the Crucifiction. We insist on making their curse our curse.

Fact of the matter is, muslims have been killing each other for THOUSANDS of years, over this religion and God of theirs, (now they are not the only people in the world that do it, but by FAR the worst for it) once again: if HE is the ONE, why doesnt he come down and smite all of the infidels and finish it? HMMMMMM. . . bet it dont happen.

If I had no food or water, I'd stop having kids I can't support, and get off my ass and find food and water. If you live in a desert, your bound not to have a descent supply of food and water!

November 21, 2012 at 8:39 am |

hk

Nobody has more oil than they do. Their own brothers don't want to help them unless it's for terrorist activities.

November 21, 2012 at 8:41 am |

F Wright

The perpetrators of the terror, the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad (both started by the Egypt based Muslim Brotherhood), are merely a part of the delusional radical Muslim movement to force fundamentalist Muslim law on the whole world. Local issues, like those of the Palestinians, are a mere pretense used to advance that goal. Without the radical Muslims, issues between Israel and its non-Israeli Arab neighbors would have been solved very long ago.
That is why the Hamas has absolutely NO interest in peaceful compromise. The Hamas Covenant itself declares: 'Peace initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement...There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.' (Article 13(
That is also why it is ONLY radical Islam that is responsible for mass random murder of passersby on a GLOBAL basis – everywhere from commuter trains in London and Madrid to hotels in Mumbai, Bali and Amman, an elementary school in Russia, buses in the Philippines, mosques (the 'wrong' type) in Lahore, restaurants in Tel Aviv, a community center in Buenos Aires, a sports gathering in Uganda, churches in Egypt and Iraq, or office towers in New York City.
Hamas knows Israel makes huge efforts to protect ALL civilians and so it deliberately launches its rockets (targeted at Israeli civilians) from among Arab civilians. This is precisely the same disregard for life and monstrous mass murder we see world wide. The entire civilized world should be aiding and joining Israel in this fight that goes very far beyond the Middle East.

Let's face it, after half a century of turmoil and deadly results for Palestinians, life is more important than a peace of land. I know that the Muslims/Arabs in the Middle East are hostile towards Israel because of what they see an illegal occupation of Palestinian land. But if Israel was to give back half of the land taken during the 1948 war, would that satisfy the Muslims/Arabs and Palestinians? Perhaps not because they are yet to accept or recognize Israel's right to exist and when you do not accept a country's right to exist, you limit the chance resolve this conflict severely.

This started long before any of us were born you moron. To say it started in 1948 is even shortsighted, but to boil this down to the last four years in profoundly ignorant. You must be one of the dumbest people on earth, no wonder we're in so much trouble. Kill yourself

So sad that whole nations can experience death and destruction because of a few leaders who follow their own personal agenda rather than the will of the people.Kind of sad how they are so willing to send others to war while they hide in bunkers.

Let's put it this way...
Let us say that each year I throw around 100-200 rocks at your house a year. I do damage, break windows etc. So according to the people supporting Hamas, that person getting rocks thrown at their house should just sit there and take it? I'm not sure that many homeowner would, maybe I would even build a fence to keep the crazy neighbor out

Israel has evacuated all the settelments in the Gaza strip years ago and instead of peace we get rockets. This rocketing has been going on for years. It's time to stop it

November 21, 2012 at 8:40 am |

fourtyfour44

Dear 55, Just a bit of knowledge of history wouldn't harm anybody. espacially true in your case.
when you come out with the slogan "your neighbor's property", make sure that you know what you are talking about.
I am not referring to the basic biblical notion but to the bare juridical notion. Where (or when) exactly in the near or distant history there was any peace of land called "palestinian people's territory"?

November 21, 2012 at 9:10 am |

fiftyfive55

fourtyfour-Since the jews returned to Israel there has been nothing but death,problem with what your getting at is people who have been gone as a nation from a land really have no right to that land anymore,by what you seem to imply is everybody should be baclk at what they deem as their homeland when in fact,no one on the planet lives in their original homeland unless everybodyon earth goes back to africa.

November 21, 2012 at 11:26 am |

fiftyfive55

@rachel Israel,within the last month we were informed that they were building new settlements so who is fi bbing to whom ?

November 21, 2012 at 11:28 am |

johannes

Let us assume that there is no God. Most educated people have come to this evident scientific conclusion. It means that all this silly wars are absolutely for nothing and in vain. They show how stupid the human race can be. Ban religion and be good to everybody, peace will follow............

Just "ban" religion? That's your solution? What would you suggest? A mass email campaign declaring religion dead. Then the burning of all bibles, korans, satanic bibles, etc? Do you really think that is a realistic solution? Seriously? Holy smokes, the world is in more trouble than I thought with sophisticates like yourself suggesting solutions. Sheesh

Religious beliefs people have are mainly the reason they fight with their neighbours. Religion is just a pile of BS. As the Human race becomes more educated, and free to make their own decisions, more people will choose to not include religion in their lives.

November 21, 2012 at 8:48 am |

Kepaze

johannes!
the wars you refer to are not for God in effect.. they are for land in the first place.. they happen because some people backed by all big powers have continued occupying the land of local Palestinians and the world keeps silent against this inustice, actually the big powers of our world are backers of the occupier and call the oppressed the terrorirsts....

Since the beginnings, people were uneducated. Now that we have become an educated society, it is time for the uneducated to realize that the "god" fairly tale is just not true. Anyone who has an extremist view on religion, where they are willing to kill over their fairly tale beliefs, is obviously not properly educated. I remember crying when my mom told me that Santa Clause was not real, but I did not kill anyone.

November 21, 2012 at 7:52 am |

fiftyfive55

@rosco-I respect your opinion but remember that it's not religion that starts wars but little men who use religion as a personal tool. I know of no religion in the modern world that condones killing to further it's cause but everyone knows unscrupulous men that will use religion negatively.

November 21, 2012 at 11:21 am |

Mi Poo

My dad's mother, is she were still alive, would be thrilled to pieces over this. because to her it would mean that whatever verse in Revelations was coming true and Jesus would be back shortly. The death, and pain, and horror wouldn't matter. Jesus was coming back. Unfortunately, man evangelicals in the country share her view.

Bukhari (52:177) – Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour (Day of Judgment) will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."

As it says in the Torah "Lo, Israel let not people stand before you as free men. They must be knocked down, either to death or to slavery! For ours is the only Kingdom and only matter of importance to YWHY

The Palestinians gave up any hope of security when they voted Hamas into power. The only hope that they have is to overthrow their government and vote peaceful leaders in...leaders that will work with Israel and the free world and not against it. If they don't do that, they need to accept whatever measures Israel deems necessary to protect the Israeli people. That's the only fair perspective to have. The people are responsible for the actions of their elected leaders until they depose them and elect new ones. Government only governs by consent of the people...therefore, the people of Palestine, as of right now, are consenting to, compliant with and guilty of illegal and immoral attacks against the civilians of Israel.

The problem is simply this: 1) It is both sides fault: Israel refuses to stop building settlements, refuses to lift the blockade, and refuses to even consider Hamas as a player in this, which they obviously are. That is the reason why they won't negotiate with them. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel, keeps provoking them as well, with either kidnappings or rockets (just like Hizbellah). Both sides talk peace, but deep down the hatred is too great. For those posters who blame religion in this, your misguided, Islam is just as much of a peaceful religion as Judahism and Christianity. If you refuse to believe that, then your naive. It's not religion, it's MAN. Both sides have to look at themsleves in the mirror and ask themselves, what do they REALLY want for their countries. Right now, it's not about their countries, it's about themselves and their own agendas. There are sides who have alot to lose with peace, that's why they prefer war.

You are right.
Read over Maronite history and you will see how the Arabs have continuously waged war on the Christian.
They occupy Lebanon govern it subdue it and now think it is Israel's turn.
No way.

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